At what age was your first cannabis experience?

I can't speak for anyone else, but I can speak from my own experiences. I started smoking dope at 14. Looking back, I think that is way too young to start. I understand everyone is different, and surely some can handle mind-altering drugs at 14.

At what age would you offer your child or niece/nephew a hit off your vape?

Earliest age - 17 . Just what I believe.

If you haven't tried it by the age of 21, you've been missing out.

Tried it for the first time at 17. Started at 21.

Tried it for the first time at 15 (once), dabbled in it when I was 24, and use it daily now (49). I could not have handled it at a younger age.

Personally it would depend on the age and/or maturity of the child. It would also depends on the laws and whether or not I had other underage children in the house. I don't want the CFS nazis coming after other children

Tom

I was in the 7th grade. I had just started going to a new school and had only met a couple of new friends there. There was a wooded area behind the tennis courts behind the school. I followed my new friends back into the woods thinking they wanted to smoke a cigarette or something, before school. A short distance into the woods we walked up on about 10-12 people smoking cigarettes out of view of the school. It didn't take long for a joint to get passed my way. All eyes were on me... the new kid... Is he going to smoke it? Is he "cool"? or is he a "narc"? I took a small hit and passed it on. It came around a couple of times and I took a few hits. I felt nothing this first time... no buzz, nothing.. I went to the library that day to do a little research to see what this stuff really was. Is this stuff safe?, etc.. was among the questions I was trying to answer. My limited research told me it was probably ok.. not physically addictive.. so I decided if given the opportunity that I would try it again. One of my new friends, a couple of days later, gave me half a joint. Since I had not gotten high at all the first time, I assumed it would be the same this time. I took the half joint home and smoked it behind the house. I got high as a kite this time.... hang on to your seat till the roller coaster stops kind of high this time.

I have enjoyed it for many years since, but looking back I feel that this was way too young to be doing this sort of thing. Prohibition, creating this huge black market, is what made and makes it so available to the younger ones these days.. and back then. It was way harder to get ahold of alcohol, the "legal" regulated drug.

When I hear the argument "think of the children" when people use it to support prohibition, I think exactly the opposite.

Regulate it. Tax it. Put the responsibility back on the individual.. the parents... and their children.. where it belongs.. enough of the "nanny state" mentality

Agreed with wthanna...

First time I tried it was 17, and was not a fan the first time. A slightly rough experience and the subsequent harsh comedown was enough for me. Sure enough, Roger Water of Pink Floyd came through town two months later with his Dark Side tour and naturally, joints were passed by complete strangers at that concert. That was the first time I enjoyed it.

I am 18 now and I feel that, in comparison to most of my friends who first tried pot at a much younger age, waiting a few years to try was beneficial. I toke each night as a way of relaxing in the last hour before bed. I don't feel the need to smoke during the day and am happy it stays that way. I feel waiting until turning 18 to buy pot and smoke nightly has given me the maturity of using pot that is required. Much like waiting to turn 18 to understand the risks and responsibilities of drinking alcohol (I live in Canada), I do not see how smoking pot should be any different. Don't even get me started on the comparison of health side-effects between booze and pot.

I feel everyone should try it at least once, but perhaps not until at least 18 to fully appreciate it's responsibilities and effects. As I grow older and am more concerned with maintaining my physical and psychological health, I am now able to legally purchase tools such as the MFLB I just ordered in order to use pot in a safer means. At a young age, you will try anything to smoke pot... The old aluminum can pipe idea comes to mind. What is a 14-year-old kid supposed to know about burning the aluminum can and the negative side-effects from it?

First time either 13 or 14. Alcohol beat bud out by a couple of months.

Funny story my first beer bong was actually a bong with beer inside of it. We had no idea what was going on.

Xero said:

First time either 13 or 14. Alcohol beat bud out by a couple of months.

Funny story my first beer bong was actually a bong with beer inside of it. We had no idea what was going on.

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That was great! Maybe we need a thread.. "Things that aren't what we thought they were"

At a job I worked at, when I was 14, I found a pack of cigs someone had left behind, and I opened it up to see if there were any left. My buddy and I would sneak cigs at this junk yard next to work, so we were always lookin' for smokes. Well, this pack just happened to have a joint in it. I stayed the night at my buddy's house, and we toked up at about 1 in the morning outside his window. Nothing happened but I pretended it did. That was the first and last time for a while.
About two weeks before my 17th birthday, I was hanging out with friends, and I had been a straight edge for about 2 years, when a buddy of mine offered to toke me up. I wasn't sure, so I did some research for a week, and decided that I wanted to try it. It was lonely being the only straight edge kid, and I wanted to reconnect with some friends who had been smoking pot for a couple of months. I smoked a joint with two of my buddies, and I only slightly felt it. I thought, damn, this isn't near as crazy as I've heard. Then, about 2 days later, I went over to one of my buddy's good smoking friend's house. He had a six foot bong, and a three foot long shotgun tube, and several little water pipes. I took one huge rip off the shotgun, and I then took a huuuuuge rip from the six footer. I ran out of the apartment and puked my guts out over the railing of his deck. I came back in, rinsed my mouth out, and proceeded to be the highest I have ever been. I know I asked at least twice if this bud had anything else in it. I mean I had tracers that were well over 3 feet long. I remember listening to Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner, and I felt like I was on a rollercoaster controlled by his guitar. Since then I have only quit once, and that was for a years probation on this thing called drug court because a group of us got caught with weed. I have taken a few t-breaks, but that's about it.
Weed is something that I think should be experienced in your upper teens, but I also realize that the world is not perfect and some of my friends have smoked it since they were 10, and are successful people anyways. I know I wouldn't toke out a person younger than 18 nowadays, but that's just because I rarely hang out with anyone younger than 22. I also agree with wthanna, about the prohibition thing, and people saying "think about the children". I may have tried green at a young age, but I didn't get drunk until I was almost 18. That was also when I decided that our government was fucked up, and had the wrong substance vilified. I never woke up with my shirt missing, and feeling like shit on weed.

first tried it around the age of 15. Dabbled with it here and there during the high school years. Became a nightly user in college after classes to take off the edge. I think 17 is a solid intro age.

first tried at 15. started at 17. i think 17 is a pretty good age, worked for me

Yeesh, I first tried cigarettes at 6 (beer and wine shortly thereafter) and I was 9 when I first hit a joint. I dont think I really messed with weed again til I was 13-14. This was when I took my first hit of LSD as well...Gawd I hope my kid grows up NOTHING like me. (So far so good!)

25 yrs old in Pakistan.

Didn't try it until my mid-20s, and only then to see if I wanted to use if for medical purposes. I had been in rooms with others, but never tried it as I had the wrong opinion of it being from the Bible Belt.

My, how things have changed.

21 and I would not offer it to anyone younger than 18.

Wow, Pakistan. That must have been interesting to say the least.

My first time was to impress new step siblings. I was 14 and so naive. I got so high I thought all of their friends were narcs and that I saw police lights outside the house. Interestingly, the negative, paranoid experience I had didn't out weight the need at the time to "be cool." This was during the late 60's; a time that was a bit of a free for all. I started a slippery slope into a lot of other drugs that I don't care to talk about anymore and which led to health problems which surfaced 32 years later. I think one is not mature enough to really handle pot until they are 18 - 21, depending on the kid. Sometimes, later. Sometimes, maybe not at all. It really depends on the person and why they want to do it.

Fortunately, herb is all I'm interested in now. I'm lucky to still be alive and I celebrate each day.

I was 18.

I was 21 the first time I tried it. I had wanted to before but never got the chance until 21. I'm 31 now. I wouldn't feel comfortable offering a vape/joint/etc to anybody under the age of 18. That's just my personal feeling about it. Of course I know many people who started much earlier and they think it was fine.

i just turned 16 and wanted to celebrate getting my license...talk about being young and dumb...

11 years old in Key West in about '70, back when Panama Red was real and Acapulco Gold was available. My big brother made me toke with him and his buddies so I couldn't narc on him. Same as he did with cigs when I was 7 or 8. I was inhaling cigs by 11, so herb was no huge stretch. We had all kinds of bongs and shit stashed all over the neighborhood.

Never thought twice about it. Been enjoying nature's bounty ever since then.

(That was also before KW became the freak show it can be today)

i was 19, Thanksgiving weekend my sophomore year in college ... but didn't have real access until i moved to California in 1970 ... so it's been a forty year love affair this June.

I was 14 and a runaway in 1966, found some really nice folk with an empty sofa and plenty of zig zag's.

I was 15 and I do not find this too young as I was very mature at 15 and I knew it was a drug and not something good to abuse which I did not as a teenager/young adult.

Everyone is at different levels of maturity as a teenager.

I first tried very strong LSD at 16 and at the time I thought that was not a good thing but as a mature adult I'm glad I used it then and it was the right time to use it.

For myself starting to drink alcohol at a young age was far more worse than smoking a bit of herb every now and then like once or a few times a month, or on weekends as a late teenager, or tripping once or twice a year was.

Greenleaf: you are right. I had the same experiences and I am glad they happened really young in life. So many people I went to school with got caught up in the same stuff but later in life and it really wrecked their life plans up.

And like someone said above it really is funny how dumb you could be in your youth, it took us a little while to figure out the beer bong thing too.

I believe alcohol is the real true evil.

lwien said:

25 yrs old in Pakistan.

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I bet there is an interesting story there..........